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October 2, 2015

Omega Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the OMEGA blog tour! I have a great excerpt from the book to share with you today - and don't forget to enter the giveaway! To follow the rest of the tour, click on the banner above.

Omega (Omega #1)

Author: Lizzy Ford

Genre: YA Dystopia

Release Date: October 25, 2015

Description:

In a modern world ruled by
territorial Greek gods, the human race has been oppressed, exploited and
now, nearly destroyed by the constant infighting of gods.

However, a human girl with the power of a goddess is coming of age.
Alessandra is the Oracle of Delphi – the last prophesized – and bears
the mark of the double omega. Soon after she turns eighteen, Alessandra
is told her destiny: to step between the warring gods and the human race
and save her world from certain ruin.

For the gods, her appearance marks the beginning of the end – their
end. They and the Triumvirate – leaders of the human elite – who serve
them will stop at nothing to preserve their power.

Alessandra emerges from the forest where she spent her life hidden
from gods and men and immediately plummets into a race against time,
gods, and herself to discover who and what she is in a world where
everyone she meets has a hidden agenda, and those pulling the strings
remain in the shadows.

Before she can determine exactly what kind of savior her world needs,
she must first master her power by completing three trials devised by
the Triumvirate to enslave her.

One lone girl stands between warring gods and the people she’s
destined to protect, but it’s the battle to understand who she is that
she must win first.

“Nothing bad had ever happened in five minutes, right?

…I
approached the red rope and nudged my toes up against it then looked
around. I half expected there to be a siren or an electrical shock or
something after the constant reminders from Herakles and the priests
never to leave the woods.

Nothing happened.

I stepped on the red cord.

Still nothing.

I
stepped over the physical boundary of my world, and a thrill went
through me. Not only was there no alarm, but I didn’t feel guilty or bad
for doing it, emotions that might derail me from continuing. I stayed
where I was, my heels butting up against the cord, and lifted my gaze to
the lake.

The possibilities were endless. My whole life started
right here and right now. I laughed at my overdramatic thoughts,
realizing nothing was about to change except I might upset Herakles.
That alone made me hesitate. I loved my crazy mountain man guardian, and
it bothered me to think I was going to make him mad by doing this.

Assuming
he finds out. The stubbornly independent side of me he spent hours
trying to exhaust with physical activity knew there was only one way he
could find out, and I wasn’t about to tell him. At least, not for three
weeks. Maybe after graduation when we were on the way to the Burger God I
was going to spend my life working at, I’d tell him of the one time in
twelve years when I defied him to dip my toes in the lake.

Crouching
like it was a race, I breathed in deeply, then bolted. There was no
real reason to run. I was completely alone, and I laughed as I sprinted,
tickled beyond anything to be completely free, if only for mere
minutes.

Sprinting to the lake, I kept to my internal promise of
not spending more than a few minutes off the property and threw myself
to the ground. Wrenching off my shoes and socks, I scooted to the edge
of the lake and dangled my legs over the rock on which I sat. The moment
my feet dipped beneath the cool surface, my world seemed to slow to a
stop. I leaned over, marveling at the sensations. It shouldn’t have
been, but this was somehow different than a pool. It felt… alive.

“Holy Poseidon,” I murmured.

The
sensation of being united with something living moved through my
system, a wave that ran from my toes to the tip of my head, in rhythm
with the water, then outward, rippling the grass around the lake. I
shivered. Fascinated, I peered into the dark depths of the lake. My feet
caused small waves that were pushed back to the natural tides of the
lake. Deep within the depths, I caught a glimmer of something odd.

I
squinted in the fading light. They weren’t fish or rocks or anything.
The lake was too deep to see the bottom, but I swore I saw ribbons of
soft colors twisting around like smoke through the waters. Their movements were too precise to be dictated by the tides. I blinked- and they were gone.

Realizing
my five minutes were up, I lifted my feet and dried them on my pant
legs then replaced my shoes and socks. I didn’t feel nearly as urgent
about returning to the forest where I’d spent most my life and ambled
back. It was strange, but I could almost feel the tide of the lake still
moving through me, rocking from toes to head and back again before
rustling the grass around me. It was gentle, soothing and peaceful. I
was an extension of the water, and it felt nice, natural.

I had
nothing to compare the experience to and couldn’t help wondering if I’d
spent my entire life cut off from such small pleasures. It made me
despise the nymphs even more, since they probably spent every weekend
feeling whatever this was out in the real world.

Stepping over
the red rope, the internal rocking stopped, and I realized it hadn’t
only been the lake I felt. The breeze that stirred the surface of the
lake stopped at the barrier, too, and its gentle touch on my skin fell
away.

I missed them almost as soon as I left them. Facing the
lake once more, I smiled. If nothing else, I now knew one of the secrets
of the world outside my boundaries, and it was beautiful.

Beyond
happy with my secret adventure, I moved five meters from the cord to an
area big enough for a fire and built a little campsite. My assigned kit
contained a canteen of water and the ingredients for s’mores. Herakles’
thoughtfulness only added to my happiness. I went through my tasks of
finding shelter, starting a fire, and stretching out on the ground to
watch the stars with a smile plastered on my face. After my treats, I
let the fire die out and retreated to a small shelter I’d created from a
poncho and tree branches. I had brought a sleeping bag and crawled into
it. My mind was on the lake, on my future and how incredible it was
going to be to leave the compound once and for all and join the rest of
the world. I slid into a deep, contented sleep.

Something awoke
me shortly before dawn. I opened my eyes, senses trained on the world
outside my makeshift tent. Animals used their instincts and intuition
better than humans, and Herakles had emphasized being more like the
locals when camping out. So I listened in silence and stillness.

An
animal was rustling quietly, but it wasn’t close, and it wasn’t in the
forest, which meant that it was large if I could hear it from this far
off. The sounds came from the direction of the lake. I crept out of my
sleeping bag and covered the distance quickly between me and the
boundary. Reaching the stump where I often perched to gaze at the lake, I
squatted on top of it and stared.

It was an animal, but nothing
like I had ever seen before. Monster was probably a better description.
The creature had a wingspan of ten meters and was the size of a
linebacker with the long, lean, musculature and grace of a feline. It
stood on two legs, and had two arms that looked pretty human. The sound I
heard was of its long tail tapping the brush lining the bank of the
lake. Its skin was an unnatural shade of stone grey. One of its ears
stuck out at an odd angle and its eyes glowed like blue jewels in the
night. It had fangs, talons, and a barbed tail, and its eyes were positioned facing forward, all of which were characteristics of a predator of some sort and not something I cared to confront.

It
stood where I had sat earlier, peering at the lake, at the surrounding
area, at the sky. It crouched beside the lake, tail tapping the dirt.

It
was horrifying- and magnificent. I couldn’t have imagined a more
incredible combination of a man and a beast. The raw power it exuded in
each tiny, controlled movement exceeded anything a human or traditional
predator possessed.

This is a dream. It had to be. No such
creature existed, unless it was some sort of undiscovered animal or
leftover dinosaur. And if that were the case, I didn’t think this would
be the first time I’d seen it. I spent too many days and nights in the
forest for it to belong here. Where it had originated, and why it chose
here to stop, I couldn’t begin to guess.

There was intelligence
in its movement and visual exploration of the environment. The man-beast
hybrid wasn’t something I was able to explain away. I pinched my arm to
ensure I was awake. The light sting wasn’t much of a reassurance when
faced with a monster from a nightmare.

It stood and unfurled its wings.

Lizzy Ford is the award winning, internationally acclaimed
author of over thirty five books written for young adult, new adult and
adult romance readers, to include the internationally bestselling
Rhyn Trilogy, Witchling Series and the War of Gods series. Considered a
freak of nature by her peers for the ability to write and release
a commercial quality novel in under a month, Lizzy has focused on
keeping her readers happy by producing brilliant, gritty romances that
remind people why true love is a trial worth enduring.